BLUEPRINTS FOR OBSERVATION

The cities we inhabit live and breath, grow and heal, adapt and evolve.

A building to be demolished downtown Vancouver (Beach and Howe) was turned into a disposable camera when I made holes through the walls peering outside from within dark rooms facing north, south, east, and west. This camera had no lenses - just apertures measuring 1/8" in diameter allowing light into the rooms. This simple design is the ancient technique and phenomenon known as the camera obscura.

The projected images were exposed onto lithographic film then developed with an experimental darkroom process using sprayers. The developed negatives were then used to make contact prints on watercolor paper using the cyanotype process. The outcome is a near 360° cityscape of film negatives and blueprint images from the perspective of a building that no longer exists.

- Joel Nicholas

'The Big Picture' is a short documentary featuring the process of above project.